The Satoshi Revolution: A Revolution of Rising Expectations
Section 4: State Versus Society
Chapter 9, Part 3
The Free Market Can Provide Law
Crypto is the Wild West, and there ought to be a law. I agree. But agreement is the beginning of a vigorous dispute.
It comes down to the question of “what is law?” Crypto may seem to be its own law and legal sanction. Those who use the blockchain consent; the protocol enforces its own consensus by virtue of participation. It is an elegant system, an elegant solution. But what happens when crypto meets the pavement? What happens when it intersects with the hyper-regulated real world in which we all deal? The response of sensible people may be to blow off the absurdity of the Kafkaesque world that surrounds us, but the concept of law as applied to daily life should not be dismissed. It plays an important role in human society.
Law should not be the entering edge of a situation because it is an organizing principle; this presumes there is something to organize, and it should follow ongoing arrangements. But, then, every once in awhile, a paradigm explodes and disrupts, well, the paradigm. Cryptocurrency exploded. Law has been scrambling to catch up ever since. And law should catch up. But the impact of that statement depends upon what is meant by the word “law.”
Government makes “law” into a synonym for legislation: that is, edicts imposed by self-interested elites who wield power in pursuit of their own self interest. That bastardizes the word “law” and perverts its true meaning. The use of the word becomes weaponized against crytpo by reference to child pornography, sex trafficking, drug addiction, and other issues that cause minds to cloud over. The issue is too important
